Royal Panda Football Betting Review

Royal Panda is a relatively new addition to the sports betting scene, having only been founded in 2014. There’s pedigree here, though – Royal Panda had been a highly-respected brand in the online casino sphere for years, before opening up their bookmaking service in 2017.

For sports betting, Sports Panda are still a relative unknown in the UK. They’re trying hard to change that though, courtesy of an eye-catching welcome offer, and a shirt sponsorship deal with Queens Park Rangers.

It’s true that newer sports betting sites don’t offer the track record of more established companies. They can still represent excellent value through attractive odds and tasty ongoing promotions, though. Find out whether this brand new bookie follows suit, and proves worthy of your hard-earned cash, in our Royal Panda review.

£20 Royal Panda free bet will only be given once qualifying bets have been settled

Qualifying bets must be made at odds of 2.0 (evens) or greater

£20 free bet must be used in a single transaction

Free bets expire after 90 days

That’s about it! There’s really no catch with this offer.

Being able to place your qualifying bet at evens gives you a solid chance of winning it. That means that – with the free bet included – you could go from a £20 deposit to having £60 to wager with (£20 deposit, £20 winnings, £20 free bet) in no time at all.

The Royal Panda sign up offer is simply fantastic, and serves as a great incentive to give them a shot.

Royal Panda Sports Ongoing Promotions

Let’s get this out of the way nice and early – Royal Panda’s user interface leaves a lot to be desired.

You can’t even reach their ongoing promotions through the sports betting section, for example. Instead, you need to go to the shared casino/sports homepage, then click on “Promotions” there. This is the first time we’ve seen this, on any sports website. Bookies are supposed to make it, y’know, easy to find and use their promotions!

Unfortunately, even when you do find the Royal Panda promotions, they leave a lot to be desired. There is literally one ongoing sports offer right now, compared to four for casino games.

That one, lonely Royal Panda offer isn’t even good. It’s called Top Price, and it simply matches the price that big bookies are offering on certain events. Considering most bettors will already have an account with one of those big bookies, this seems pretty pointless!

We mentioned earlier that enticing ongoing promotions are a great way for new bookies to drum up business. Well, Royal Panda clearly didn’t get the memo. Their ongoing offers need to be improved, and quickly.

Royal Panda Football Features

We’ve already mentioned Royal Panda’s lackluster layout, and this continues in the football section.

It’s not disastrous by any means, but does lag behind the interface of larger competitors. The screen simply looks too busy, making it hard to find what you’re actually looking for, and the text is a pale grey, which is difficult to discern against the white background.

The odds are also needlessly complicated. Watford to beat Man U in an upcoming match, for example, is 301/100. Why not just make it 3/1, as any major bookie would?

Presentation aside, there’s actually a nice selection of football features here.

In-play betting works particularly well, with wagers being placed nice and quickly. There’s no actual streaming, but you’re kept up to date with matches via a neat little animated graphic, and constantly updated stats. Putting together an accumulator is also extremely easy, with the combined odds calculated swiftly.

In addition, there’s an excellent range of football markets to bet on. It’s possible to bet on both individual games, and outright season-long outcomes (title winner, relegated teams, etc.), in leagues from all around the world.

If you can get past the initially unimpressive interface, the Royal Panda football features are solid.

The sports available for betting at Royal Panda appear on a menu of appropriate icons. Football is the first option and the sport is indicated by a football icon. At the time of writing only a limited number of countries were covered for football betting. Odds are displayed under the headings of Pre-Match and In-Play. On the day the site was reviewed there was an English Premier League match between Tottenham and Manchester City that was being shown live on television all around the world. These EFL fixtures are the most popular for betting in the UK and other parts of the world.

The three-way match odds are displayed on the football main page with a link to the massive 484 related markets which appear under the following headings:

All

Match

Total

Half

Corners

Cards

Offsides

Fouls

Players

Shots on Goal

Minutes

In terms of the number of markets on offer Royal Panda offers the best football service but its debateable if some of the minor markets add anything to the overall match product. Most in-play football bettors focus on the main markets including match result, number of goals and next team to score. However, the shots on goal market is different and could generate some betting interest.

Nothing can be faulted in terms of the quantity of football markets and the margin is about average. The match odds have a margin of 107% which is about in the middle of the range. Other bookmakers have a customised betting facility whereby customers can create their own multiple by combining events in a match. Royal Panda do not provide customised betting but the list of markets could not be more comprehensive.

It was pointed out earlier in the review that the only ongoing sports promotion is a promise to offer the best odds on specific sports and events. The Top Price offers are occasional and does not include any bet boosts or enhanced odds at other sportsbooks. The guarantee is promoted on social media and football is included in the range of sports that apply and high profile matches are selected.

Royal Panda offers in-play betting on a wide range of football leagues and matches. The graphical display of match information goes some way to compensating for the lack of live streaming. The update statistics are useful especially in the head-to-head format. Royal Panda updates about 50 markets in play under the headings of match, handicap and total. There was no cash out facility at the time of writing.

Customers with Royal Panda can bet on the outright winner of each of the leagues covered. The margins for these markets are competitive but once the football season has started there is not a great deal of interest in these markets. Odds are updated after each round of matches but in terms of betting value there is very little that stands out with the Royal Panda outright betting product. However, the pre-match service for specific fixtures is comprehensive in terms of markets.

Other Betting Markets

There’s more to sports betting than football, of course, and to their credit Royal Panda sports cater to a wide-ranging audience.

All the other major sports you’re likely to wager on – tennis, cricket, golf, and so on – are extremely well-represented. In golf, for example, you’re already able to get odds and bet on the winner of next year’s majors, many months in advance.

Royal Panda’s US sports coverage is equally impressive. You can make outright or individual wagers on the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB. The same goes for eSports, which is an increasingly popular betting market, and there are a few more obscure sports to wager on too (anyone for a spot of water polo betting?).

Royal Panda Mobile Betting Options and Apps

The Royal Panda app is technically available for both iOS and Android devices, although the Royal Panda Android app isn’t currently on Google Play. It has been in the past, though, so hopefully it will return soon.

We tested the app on an iPhone, and were generally pleased with what we found. The layout – whilst it could still be improved – actually works better on mobile than on desktop. The icons are larger, and the text is easier to read.

All the same features are available too, including in-play betting, cash out options, and the excellent customer support options. Everything loads nice and quickly, and we experienced no crashes or other bugs.

There are only two complaints we have about the app.

Firstly, though it claims you’ll only be logged out after 30 minutes of inactivity, you’re actually logged out much faster.

Secondly, there’s no “Remember Me” option when you go to log in, not even for your email address/username. You can’t set up a shorter pin code to replace your full password, either; an option which other bookies offer. It’s frustrating to keep needing to type in your full username and password, particularly when you’re logged out so frequently.

Those minor gripes aside, we were extremely pleased with the Royal Panda mobile app.

Opening a Royal Panda Account

Existing customers log in to their account from the Home Page by entering a unique combination of a Username and Password. Potential new customers click the ‘Join Royal Panda now’ button. The registration screen appears where new customers enter account, personal and contact information. Once all te required fields have been populated the account is open. Royal Panda send an activation link to the registered email and the link must be clicked to confirm the site.

Customers can make a deposit using debit and credit cards, e-Wallets and bank transfer. In order to take advantage of the welcome offer described below customers must deposit £20 but the minimum deposit is £10. You must select the sports welcome offer and once this has been done the deposit method details are entered.

Once the deposit has been confirmed the account is updated and betting can begin. When odds are selected the Bet Slip appears. The type of bets available for the number of selections are displayed and once the stake has been entered and bet confirmed the account balance is updated. The process of opening an account, making the first deposit and placing a bet takes just a few minutes.

Banking Options and Withdrawal Time

Royal Panda betting offer a varied number of deposit methods. Along with Mastercard and Visa, you can use Skrill, Neteller, bank transfer, and more. The only noticeable omission is PayPal, but we’d hope that would be added soon.

The minimum deposit is £10, and deposits are processed instantly.

The minimum withdrawal is also £10, and – pleasingly – you don’t need to use the same payment method to withdraw as you did to deposit. Withdrawals will be either instant, or will take 1-5 days, depending on the method.

Royal Panda Security

When you’re looking at a relatively new bookie, you want to be sure that both your money and details will be safe. In short, what you really want to know is, “Is Royal Panda legit?”

Royal Panda betting is licensed in both Malta and the United Kingdom, which is a good sign. They use a powerful SSL certificate to protect users’ data, with everything on their website hosted on secure HTTPS servers, and protected by 265-bit encryption.

Overall, Royal Panda go to reassuring lengths to ensure that both your data, and your payments, are protected on their site.

Royal Panda Sports Betting UX and Layout

The user interface can be confusing and navigation is not easy. The main menu options are casino, live casino and sports. The sports promotions appear under the casino heading, probably because most of the ongoing offers are related to the casino and live casino. The sportsbook pages are informative but look cluttered. When you select the sports option a current in-play match is displayed. The sports on offer are indicated by an icon on the left hand side of the screen. The colour coding is clear but moving around the site seems cumbersome and it is not intuitive.

Customer Support

Along with security, customer support tends to be one of the biggest question marks when considering a newly-formed bookie. Fortunately, this is one test which Royal Panda casino passes with flying colours.

The royalpanda.com customer service is sensational. You can get in touch with their support team via live chat, phone or email, with the staff working 09:00 – 00:30 CEST, seven days per week. It’s equally easy to access the “Help” section on both desktop and mobile devices.

There’s also a very good FAQ section, which answers every common question you’re likely to have clearly and succinctly.

The Royal Panda contact options genuinely couldn’t be better.

Royal Panda Company Details

Royal Panda are based in Malta, and were founded in 2014. They began offering sports betting in 2017, and have approximately 60 employees.

Despite enjoying success during their first three years of operation, Royal Panda’s Dutch founders decided to sell the business in 2017 for €60 million.

The buyers were another big up-and-coming European betting company, LeoVegas. So now, despite still using the Royal Panda name, they are actually operated by the same people as LeoVegas, led by CEO Gustaf Hagman.

On the technical side, Royal Panda work with BetConstruct to provide their software. BetConstruct are a highly experienced outfit, who work with bookies all around the world, so bettors are certainly in safe hands with them.

Royal Panda Bottom Line

If you’ve read all of our Royal Panda sports betting review, you’ll have seen that it’s very much a mixed bag. There’s a lot to like about Royal Panda sports area, but there are also some notable frustrations.

Chief amongst these is the layout. It’s both unattractive and unintuitive, particularly regarding the desktop version. You get used to it over time, of course, but it may be enough to dissuade first-time visitors. Considering they’re such a new brand, we were also disappointed to find so few Royal Panda promotions on offer.

If you can get past those barriers, however, you’ll find a solid bookie. The range of betting markets is extensive, with football fans particularly well catered for, and we were extremely impressed by the variety and quality of the Royal Panda customer service options.

All in all, there’s definitely enough here to take advantage of the fantastic Royal Panda sign up offer and give them a try. To do just that, simply head over here, stick £20 into your account, and enjoy a tidy little £20 free bet.

New customers only, place a £10 bet on any Sportsbook market – min stake £10 at odds of at least 1.5 (1/2) — and we’ll give you £30 in free bets. Only deposits made using Cards or Paypal will qualify for this promotion. Free bets are valid for 30 days and must be used on a Sportsbook market. Free bets will be awarded after the qualifying bet has been settled. T&Cs apply. Paddy’s Rewards Club: Get a free £10 bet when you place 5x bets of £10+. T&Cs apply.

About The Author

Writer for several sports websites covering the main British and European sports. Biggest expertise lies in soccer, horse racing, cricket, tennis and golf. Worked as the Betting Editor for the Daily Mirror Football app. Published on The Independent online and also written for Sporting Life and sports.com.
In the past worked as an odds compiler and trader for online sports books bwin and Expekt and was head of trading for several sports and gained extensive experience of in-running trading.